Many want to lead a healthier lifestyle but cannot figure out where or how to start. While nutritional science is indeed a complex affair, there's a way to make it really, really simple: Just eat organic.
Just eat organic. Organic Food Significantly Lowers Your Toxic Burden.
Pesticides pose risks to human health, and not just from contaminated food but also from contaminated groundwater. It is time to overturn the myth that pesticides are necessary to feed the world and create a global process to transition toward safer and healthier food and agricultural production. Organic farming has other benefits as well, including:
- Mitigating climate change
- Promoting animal welfare
- Being more profitable for farmers
Ensuring the food isn't genetically engineered (GE) or contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Soil depletion is a direct result of modern agricultural practices and has led to crops containing fewer nutrients. Reductions in biodiversity and a narrowing of available foodstuffs has also resulted in a narrower range of nutrients in our diets.
Even the healthy foods you choose, such as an apple or lettuce, are likely not as nutritious as they once were, and wild plants widely foraged in the past provided an astounding level of phytonutrients that are largely absent from our modern cultivated fruits and veggies.
Organic Foods Have Fewer Pesticides and Higher Antioxidant Content
Eating organic is one of the easiest ways to optimise your nutrition without supplementation (although certain supplements may still be necessary or advisable, depending on your condition and overall diet). Studies have repeatedly shown that organic foods: a) have much lower pesticide residues; and b) contain higher amounts of health-promoting nutrients.
Considering the health dangers associated with pesticides, this is clear evidence that organics confer greater health benefits than conventional produce. Organically raised chicken was also up to 45 percent less likely to contain antibiotic resistant bacteria, , which will also help protect your health.
Conventional produce also had on average 48 percent higher levels of cadmium, a toxic metal and a known carcinogen. Moreover, while many nutrient levels were comparable, a key nutritional difference between conventional and organics was their antioxidant content.
Antioxidants are a very important part of optimal health, as they influence how fast you age by fighting free radicals. So, the fact that organic foods contain far higher levels of them vouches for the stance that organic foods are healthier in terms of nutrition, in addition to being lower in pesticides.
Organic Grass Fed Milk and Meat Are Healthier Than Factory Farmed
Two 2016 studies — one on the compositional differences of organic and conventional meat, and one on milk — also found clear differences between the two. Said to be the largest studies of their kind, the researchers analysed 196 and 67 studies on milk and meat respectively.
The largest difference in nutritional content of meat was its fatty acid composition, certain essential minerals and antioxidants. Coauthor Chris Seal, professor of food and human nutrition at Newcastle University, commented on the findings:15
"Omega-3s are linked to reductions in cardiovascular disease, improved neurological development and function, and better immune function. Western European diets are recognised as being too low in these fatty acids and the European Food Safety Authority recommends we should double our intake.
But getting enough in our diet is difficult. Our study suggests that switching to organic would go some way toward improving intakes of these important nutrients."
According to the review on milk, half a litre of organic full fat milk will provide you with an estimated 39 milligrams (mg) or 16 percent of the reference daily intake (RDI) of very long-chain (VLC) omega-3 (EPA, DPA and DHA), whereas conventional milk will provide only 25 mg or 11 percent of the RDI of these important fats.
As noted in the milk study, VLC omega-3s have been linked to a number of health benefits, including "improved fetal brain development and function, delayed decline in cognitive function in elderly men and reduced risk of dementia (especially Alzheimer's disease)."
Organic milk also contains lower levels of omega-6, providing a healthier ratio between these two fatty acids. Compared to conventional milk, organic milk was also found to contain:
- Higher levels of vitamin E
- Higher concentrations of iron
- Higher levels of antioxidant carotenoids
- 40 percent more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which has a wide array of important health benefits, from fighting cancer to decreasing insulin resistance and improving body composition
Healthy Food Resources
Ultimately, choosing organic products for yourself and your family is one of the most proactive measures you can implement to take control of your health. If you must choose between which products to purchase organic, I recommend prioritising organic animal foods and then using the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) "Dirty Dozen" list for produce.
The dirty dozen list shows which fruits and vegetables are most prone to heavy pesticide contamination and therefore the most important to buy organic.
Keep in mind that while many grocery stores now carry organic items, these are typically imported from other countries, which may or may not have stringent organic standards in place. Ideally, try to buy as much as you can directly from local farmers, whom you can ask directly about their agricultural practices.